Sandoval coup

The Sandoval coup, also known as the Golpe de la liña or “coup of the line”, was the successful removal of the government of Cantaire in Nollonger 1977 by a group of senior army officers under the leadership of lieutenant-general Leontios do Sandoval. The coup in its strictest sense lasted less than a year, inasmuch as Sandoval was removed at that time from his self-assumed position as head of government; however, the military junta which he originally headed remained in control of the country until as late as 1994.

Origins

The tenor of the relationship between Cantaire and its largest neighbour, Savam, had been steadily shifting in the years since the end of the Long War. Successive governments in Quesailles had promoted a policy of building good relations with Savam’s neighbours; this included an extensive program of aid to these countries, aimed at binding the economic prosperity of the recipients to that of Savam and fostering a pro-Savamese mindset among leaders and opinion-formers in those countries; this was often referred to in Savam as the méthode Couvier after the former chancellor Serge de Couvier, who first proposed such measures in relation to Transvechia in 1868.

By any reasonable measure, the méthode Couvier was a clear success as it applied to Cantaire. With the country’s relations with its traditional ally Ceresora in a state of flux as the easterners rebuilt after the end of their disastrous civil war, the government in Alba was badly in need of friends – especially powerful friends – and seized on Savamese financial aid with what, in hindsight, would prove to be remarkable recklessness. Cantaire showed a clear surge in prosperity and a growing sense of social cohesion during the later 1960s and early 1970s; but the shadow cast by these changes was a long one. There was growing resentment by Cantaire’s Orthodox Cairan majority against the less numerous Reformists, and this was especially marked among the significant number of Savamese Orthodoxist émigrés who had been forced out of their home country by anti-Orthodox purges during the war years, and who had no great reason to place trust in Quesailles’ good faith on any matter. Outside the faithly realm, there were significant concerns over the terms attached to Savamese aid, and the consequences for the Cantairean economy should Savamese loans be fully subjected to commercial repayment terms. Even those less committed in terms of faith or ideology expressed fears that Savam was making itself such an integral part of the Cantairean economy that Cantaire itself was becoming a plaything of the Savamese. Even actual annexation – as was being raised with varying degrees of seriousness in nearby Sarre, a former Savamese territory – was seen as at least a possibility.

Against such a backdrop, Cantairean politics became steadily more divisive during the later 1960s and on into the 1970s, with a divide emerging between the “cosmopolitans” who favoured greater engagement with Savam and the “true Cantaireans” who sought a country which treated fairly with all and owed fealty to none. The increasing prevalence of the slogan Cantara para os cantarois, “Cantaire for the Cantaireans”, dates from around 1969; and the same year saw a well-remembered television comedy sketch in which the comedian Pedrito, dressed in a heavy leather jacket and representing Savam as a typical “stand-over man”, menaced a group of stock Cantaireans with the line, “You’ve got a nice little country here… it’d be a shame if anything happened to it, don’t you think?”

As the 1970s wore on a further factor was thrown into the mix, with Ceresora beginning to throw off its inward-looking posture as the post-war Cislacunian Federation found its feet. The new Ceresora was by no means as hostile to Savam as its predecessor had been, but nonetheless was seeking to reassert, as far as possible, its old status as a significant player in regional affairs. Cantaire naturally featured in these plans as an ally and substantial economic market. The part of the gathering protest movement which focused on the religious divide were predisposed towards making common cause with Orthodoxist Ceresora; and although the government in Cavino had to walk carefully to avoid upsetting a delicate balance at home, some support did come to anti-Savamese factions (even if not as much as has commonly been claimed).

By the middle 1970s there was an increasingly stark division between, on the one hand, a perceived “Orangist” elite in Alba which was either allowing or actively aiding the Savamese grip on Cantaire, and on the other hand a broader-based conservative populace who seemingly no longer trusted their government to act in their best interests. Cantaire was becoming a powder-keg; and the fuse which would set it off was the decision by the Cantairean parliament in Empery 1977 to accept a proposal to join the Savamese Customs Union which the two sides had spent most of the previous twelve months working out in detail. The plan had been one of the key elements of the campaign through which incumbent Chief Minister Teodoro do Coruxo had gained his office in 1974; but the shift in public opinion in the country was something that he either failed to recognise or chose to ignore.

The conspiracy

Leontios do Sandoval, c. 1971.

As the downward spiral continued, the core of a conspiracy against the Cantairean state began to take shape around the figure of lieutenant-general Leontios do Sandoval. The general was one of a small cadre of officers who had first come to prominence in the Brexo-Cantairean War of the 1940s, and had used the laurels won in that conflict to smooth his path into positions of greater authority in the Cantairean military in the ensuing years. Firmly, and at times flamboyantly, patriotic – a contemporary once described him as “wearing A Bandeira da Honra” (the flag of Cantaire) like a cloak” – and impeccably Orthodox in his religious observances, Sandoval was in some respects the perfect focus for the Cantairean “ultras” as they gathered in strength during the SCU debate – especially as the man whom the conservatives looked to as their champion, King Felipe IV, seemed disinclined to act, having dismissed concerns by the conservative flank over loss of sovereignty as lacking in substance.

Legally, Felipe was correct – the SCU is specifically framed as being concerned with the facilitation of trade between member states, with no suggestion that the member states yielded their political independence to Quesailles. In practice, however, it was feared that the surrender of much legislative power in these areas would make the Cantairean parliament merely a rubber stamp for decisions made in Savam and at its behest. An even bigger roadblock was represented by the requirement under the terms of the agreement on full SCU membership for Cantaire to give up its own currency, the león, in favour of the Savamese aurel used by other full members; this same issue had prompted furious debate and even rioting in other states which had sought SCU membership. In the lead-up to the membership vote attention had regularly been drawn by the Cantairean media to the riot which had swept the Emilian capital, Pont d’Chélîn, four years previously over Emilia joining the SCU – and that only as an associate.

Protests by the conservatives swelled over the next few months, with some prominent commentators insisting that a decision of such importance could not be taken by the parliament alone; but this seemed all to no avail. With the accession date set for 1 Sation 1978, Sandoval and his associates, military and civilian alike – a group which has since become known as the Boa Vista Social Club after a country estate outside Alba where they frequently met – were forced to take action in defence of all that they held dear; after a flurry of clandestine activity as plans were put together, the Coup of the Line went into play on 11 Nollonger.

The coup as it developed

A certain amount of pump-priming had been taking place in the previous two weeks, with civilian sympathisers within key companies implementing artificial “shortages” of fuel and food supplies across the country, aimed at discrediting the Coruxo government. While a small-scale protest-demonstration had actually been in place for almost a week at that point – taking over most of the Parque da Amposta, directly opposite the parliament building – this expanded greatly during the course of the 11th, with an estimated 70,000 people (almost one-tenth of the population of Alba) spilling out of the park to surround the entrances to the parliament building. Some smaller protests took place in other cities, while offices in Alba being used by Coruxo’s Nova Esperanza (“New Hope”) faction were seized by protestors and ransacked before being set on fire.

Aftermath of rioting on an Alba city-centre commercial street.

The protests continued into the night, with an all-night vigil by torchlight being conducted in the Amposta, while a smaller encampment was set up within sight of the royal palace, some two miles away; and they increased in intensity during the 12th, with the centre of Alba becoming virtually impassable by vehicle traffic. Coruxo, who had been effectively imprisoned in the parliament building, remained intransigent; but, at 10:00 AM on the 12th, Sandoval and his chief associates met with King Felipe, making plain their position that Coruxo had lost the support of the country at large, and now had to be removed for the greater good of Cantaire. Felipe prevaricated, insisting that Coruxo had the right to decide how to resolve the problem which now confronted him; but Sandoval raised the stakes further by making an announcement through Cantairean state radio two hours later, in which he stated that the army would give Coruxo until 5:00 PM on the 13th to stand down, “or the people and army of Cantaire will not accept responsibility for what may follow.”

Reports of events in Cantaire reaching foreign capitals prompted not unexpected responses. There were reports (unconfirmed in either Alba or Quesailles) that the Viceroy of Savam, XX, spoke by telephone with Coruxo on the afternoon of the 12th and suggested that his best option would be to resign his office and allow the parliament to debate as to his successor, to which Coruxo declined to respond. One confirmed contact – announced over state media by the Ceresoran Chief Minister, Simion Stanulescu, later that day – indicated that Ceresora was “ready to offer its fullest support to the people of Cantaire in their desire to remain a free, sovereign state”. Coruxo was further isolated by the resignation during the same day of five of his cabinet ministers, but made a televised address of his own from a studio within the parliament building at 9:00 PM, denouncing the “reactionary forces who seek to deny our people the peace and prosperity which they deserve”.

Protests and small-scale rioting continued across Alba on the 13th as Sandoval’s deadline approached; and, for the first time, this included some small counter-demonstrations by government supporters which were forcibly broken up by army troops. Other targets were Reform Cairan temples, seen by many of the protestors as harbours for pro-Savamese sentiment; several temples were attacked by rioters, and one in the northern Alba suburb of Santa Helena was seriously damaged by petrol bombs thrown into the building Just after 11:00 AM, a small delegation led by the Orthodox Holy Mother of Cantaire, Corazón da Luneda, was admitted to the parliament building after Luneda offered herself as a mediator; a meeting between Almorchón and other government officials with Sandoval’s associates – but not, at this point, Sandoval himself – followed shortly after, but proved inconclusive. The sticking point was, apparently, Coruxo’s insistence on remaining at the head of a transitional government which would include military officers and non-elected civilian officials in key posts. Luneda left the building at just after 2:30 PM with nothing having been settled.

The original 5:00 PM deadline passed with no action being taken; but at 5:35 PM an army armoured personnel carrier was allowed into the parliament building’s compound; this vehicle carried Sandoval and several of his co-conspirators, along with several officials of the Justiciary Office, including the Cantairean chief justice Hector Oliviera, who made the formal arrest of Coruxo for dereliction of duty. The former chief minister was removed to the army base at Haro, south of Alba, where he was held under arrest; Sandoval and Oliveira made the short trip to the royal palace, where the king, effectively presented with a fait accompli, gave his assent to the removal of Coruxo from office and his temporary replacement as Chief Minister by Oliveira – apparently a constitutional nicety to allow Felipe the public position that he had not surrendered his responsibilities to the army of which he was nominally supreme commander. The formal announcement of Coruxo’s ouster was made over Cantairean state media at 8:00 PM on 13 Nollonger, prompting celebrations among the demonstrators outside the parliament building and the palace, including some impromptu firework displays.

Aftershocks

As was not unexpected, Oliveira’s tenure as Chief Minister was brief; he held the office for only three days, with his only significant acts in this period being the announcement of the formal dissolution of the parliament “pending elections to take place when their organisation can be reliably conducted”, and the putting-together of an officially “interim” government along the lines set out in the meeting chaired by Luneda. While not all of its members were army officers, they occupied the key offices, and there was little room for doubt that the army was firmly in charge. Oliveira tendered his resignation to King Felipe on the morning of 17 Nollonger and recommended Sandoval to succeed him – a recommendation which Felipe was in no position to turn down.

Sandoval made a formal address to the country in his new capacity that same evening, explaining the reasons why he and his allies had felt obliged to act; in this speech he made reference to “the line which we had to draw between what was acceptable to the country and what was not” – a deliberate call-back to the words of the Orthodoxist Holy Mother Téodora de Beldopoule’s 1731 proclamation De Linea Ducenda, in which she proclaimed a sentence of heresy against the state of Brocquie. For many – especially for Reformers – this was taken as a clear statement of intent, and gave the coup its familiar name, “Coup of the Line”. Among the new regime’s first actions – forced through within a week of the coup – was a formal repudiation of the agreement to join the SCU.

Allegations flew freely in the period immediately after the coup, and Sandoval went to the extent of allowing the Savamese ambassador, FF, to visit Coruxo at Haro to confirm that he was in good health and was being well-treated; however, he rejected entreaties to release the former chief minister without further action – even after Quesailles expressed its willingness to allow Coruxo to exile himself in Savam – and an arraignment was scheduled for late Petrial 1978. This did not necessarily preclude retribution elsewhere, and over the next few months emerged a limpeza or “the cleaning”, an extensive program under which Reformers and others seen as sympathetic to Savam and its allies were systemically ousted from positions of authority across the country.

However, as months passed it became clearer that Sandoval himself was becoming increasingly unstable, seemingly seeking no less than to remake the country in his own ultra-patriotic image. In particular, he focused his attention on the Samezeans in Cantaire’s north, close to the Savamese border. This community spoke a language, Samezeau, which was frequently seen as only a Savamese dialect (certainly, it bore marked differences from Cantairean), were mainly Reform by faith and had shown the least co-operation with his initiatives. Matters came to a head in Empery 1978, when the town council at Nargo, a town of some 100,000 people in the central Samezean region, voted to suspend payments to the provincial authorities after some particularly heavy-handed anti-Reformist actions by Cantairean army and police detachments. Sandoval’s insistence on having the mayor of Nargo and some twelve members of his extended family arrested and jailed for obstruction in a bid to force compliance was the point at which even his closest allies decided that he had crossed the line; and he himself was taken into custody by his own security guard, with his deputy Paulo da Montaguia assuming his position at the head of the junta.

Sandoval’s health declined steadily over the next few months, and medical examinations found that he had developed a cerebral tumour – reportedly “the size of an orange” – that was both inoperable and fatal, and was very probably the root cause of his mental instability since the coup. Despite close medical supervision, he lived only a few more months, passing away on 4 Petrial 1979 at the age of 67 years. He was given a state funeral in Alba five days later; the cause of his death was announced publicly as heart failure.